Anyone have a take on 2checkout's new user agreement?

[wizardsandwars]

I'm not exactly sure what to think, yet.

 

>>>>>>>>>>

 

Effective, November 17, 2002, 2CO will be changing the terms of

the service agreement under which it provides services to its

contracted vendors. The next time you login to your Admin panel,

you will be redirected to the new Supplier Agreement, Operating

Guidelines and general Terms of Service.

 

The establishment and implementation of new guidelines by major

credit card companies and the enforcement of existing guidelines

made these changes necessary. Please note that every effort has

been made to minimize the effect realized by the end-user - the

customer.

 

Many of you are aware of the nature of the new regulations and

have expressed concern. Obviously the staff and management of

2CO have been concerned as well. Taking all of the changes into

consideration - and estimating the likely effect on global

third-party processing - the objective became a business structure

that would enable 2CO to continue to offer a cost-effective

alternative to our vendors.

 

The decision was made to avoid a multi-layered short-term approach

that would undoubtedly have a negative impact on the fees offered

to a very large portion of our vendor base. Subsequently, 2CO

decided to contract with what is probably the best 'card not

present' company to improve our processing position and ascertain

what the best course of action for long term stability and growth

would be.

 

We feel we've succeeded. The result is a supplier/reseller

arrangement that not only enables us to keep our fee structure

the same while at the same time adding additional staff and new

features, but also affords us the ability to offer several premium

enhancements to the service.

 

? Descriptor Capability - your 'name' will appear on the customer's

credit card statement

? Multi-Currency Interface - the customer chooses at the time of

service the currency in which they want to pay - the amount they

see as the charge is exactly the amount billed to their credit

card

? ATM Card - a true "brick and mortar" bank account enabling payment

transfers via direct deposit at no issuing cost to you

? Faster Processing - a direct processing platform eliminates the

'middle man'

? Lower Chargeback Fees - a reduction in the fees incurred for

chargebacks

? New Fraud Controls - comprehensive and fully integrated fraud

controls

? Higher Earnings - those current active accounts that remain active

through December 31, 2002 will enjoy a rate reduction to 5% and 45

per transaction

? New 2Checkout.com Mall - designed and promoted to help merchants

sell (similar to a yahoo store)

 

2Checkout.com will also be redesigning and restructuring its entire

website, supplier control panel and three-way customer service

interface. The new design will include many of the requests submitted

during the last six months.

 

 

"What do I need to do?"

 

Credit card regulations require that the potential customer be informed

of 2CO's role as the actual "seller" prior to the payment portion of

the process. This requires a text disclaimer to be posted on your

website that indicates:

 

"Some credit card and e-check purchases will be sold by 2Checkout.com,

Inc. - Ohio, U.S.A. Products or services provided by <your company

name>"

 

Additionally, Credit Card regulations require that the customer's

credit card not actually be billed until the order has been fulfilled

(i.e. accessed digital goods such as ebooks, webhosting enabled,

service fulfillment) or shipped (tangible goods or delayed service

fulfillment). Because of this regulation 2CO will now require items

to be fulfilled or shipped before the card transaction is settled and

fund released.

 

Finally, the "new reserve policy" of a 5% / 90 day rolling reserve

will be mandatory (even for accounts previously grandfathered) and

will replace the existing reserve policy.

 

The new Terms of Service, Supplier Agreement and Operating Guidelines

must be acknowledged as "acceptable" prior to November 25, 2002.

Upon agreement you will be forwarded to a new Account Information

screen that requests some new information from you. This information

needs to be completed to comply with the USA's New Patriot Act

guidelines and to complete your registration as an affiliated vendor

of 2Checkout.com.

 

If you do not respond or update the page by November 25, 2002 you

will be notified that your account will be suspended and no further

sales will be processed on your behalf effective 12:01 AM on

December 1, 2002.

 

Everyone at 2CO greatly appreciates the vendors who have utilized

our services in the past. We believe we've established an extremely

strong banking relationship and the resulting stability will result

in better service to you.

 

 

Thank you for contributing to our success and our sincere hopes for

your own success.

 

 

Regards,

The Management

2Checkout.com, Inc.

[ocularmagic]

Well it sounds like they are adding some stuff that we'll probably have to pay for and that we need to put a disclaimer on the site that says that 2checkout is the actual seller? I don't get that, especially if one of their new features is that your name.com is going to be on their credit card. As far as the not getting the money until it's shipped out, that will be interesting. Will we be able to login and say, ok, I shipped it? That will kind of be a pain but I guess if that's what the regulations say, have to follow that. Other than that doesn't sound like a huge change, but then again, it's probably not supposed to.

[wizardsandwars]

Actually, it looks like the transaction fees will be going down .05%.

 

I agree with the shipping thing. Looks like a hassle.

 

Another thing is the 5% 90 day revolving thing. I'll have to look further into that one.

[ocularmagic]

Also, I don't know if anyone charges a restocking fee, but if you use 2checkout, you can't charge a restocking fee. Kind of odd IMO.

[wizardsandwars]

It's part of 2checkout's "purchase guarantee" to the customer. I use it as a selling point.

 

To tell you the truth, I've never even had a return after 300 + transactions.